“It was lovely as usual,” said longtime camper Linda Townsend. “I want to go back.”

Linda is 57 years old and has been coming to Pine Tree Camp for 44 years. She is very proud to say she has never missed a single summer.

Her home in Portland doesn’t provide much in the way of trees and, each year when she gets to Pine Tree Camp, the woods are the first place she wants to be.

“I grew up in the woods and I enjoy it. It makes me feel relaxed and serene.”

For one week a year, Cabin 3 is where Linda calls home and where she can leave behind the confines of her cerebral palsy and recharge in the heart of the Maine woods.

Dawn Willard-Robinson, Director of Pine Tree Camp, has known Linda for over 30 years.

“I love the fact that when she first gets here, she takes off for the first couple of days to spend time on her own in the woods. We have a one and a half mile accessible trail system she can just take off on in her wheelchair.”

For Dawn, it’s clear that “Linda has to come to camp. It’s her opportunity to get outside again and it helps keep her going all year long.  She sits outside all the time when she’s here.  You always see her reading a book on the porch or going down the trails into the woods.  It’s where she finds peace.”

Linda’s tuition is paid for by the generous contribution of a Pine Tree Camp 100 corporate sponsor. Pine Tree Camp never turns anyone away due to their ability to pay, and corporate contributions help ensure that open door policy stays firmly in place so people like Linda who can benefit from the program have the ability to do so.